Volume 2, Issue 3 – March 2013

Celtic Guide

GameChangers

From the EditorIt’s March! And March brings St. Patrick’s Day and hopefully a change in the

weather – for the better that is. It would be nice to see a little green again.Not surprisingly, it is doubtful that the bright green, spotless clothing St. Patrick

is often seen in is representative of the garb he commonly wore. Most of the plant-based dyes available at the time were muted. It is not commonly known that the only

reason purple became the typical “royal” color is because it was only able to be made by using a difficult to harvest, medium-size sea snail! Muted shades were pretty much the colors of the day until more modern methods were developed. The “secrets” of the techniques used by early humankind often get lost over time, perhaps because of an invasion, perhaps because of the dissolution of an entire society due to drought, floods, and other natural destructive forces. For instance, ceramics from ancient Mesopotamia show people wearing vivid green costumes, but it is not known how the colors were produced. Most early green dyes were pale or muted. Only in the 16th century was a good green dye produced, by first dyeing the cloth blue with woad (a mustard family plant), and then yellow with reseda luteola, also known as yellow-weed, or dyer’s weed.

The first recorded use of the word ‘green’ as a color term, in Old English, dates to ca. AD 700, over 350 years after St. Patrick passed away. But green is what we need to see as a game change in the weather for us northerners. Speaking of game-changing, that is our theme, this issue, and as usual the stories stretch the theme to new limits, providing articles that it is doubtful would appear in any other magazine of this type. That’s what I personally love about the Celtic Guide . . . you just never know what you’re going to find inside.

Many techniques were developed by early mankind, and many became lost for centuries. A few have never been rediscovered. One of articles, this issue, focuses on two Scotsmen who did rediscover lost knowledge, several centuries after it had faded away. These men are just two of the many game changers we will focus on in this issue of the Guide.

Of course, we will mention the great game changers like St. Patrick, St. Columba, and others, and we will feature a brand new type of article this month - an epic poem. This poem was written by a modern writer, yet based on an historical incident. Our front cover was received as part of this epic, and worked so well as a cover shot that we decided to let the victorious leader on top of the mound represent Celtic game changers in general. Oh, and the illustrator of the cover, and the writer of the poem - one Larry Anderson, new to the pages of Celtic Guide.

We also have another new writer, Susan Tomory, who provides information I have never seen elsewhere on the connection of a group of folks out of Hungary to the Celts of the British Isles. It is a substantial and interesting story. And, of course, we have some returning writers as well – folks who are there nearly every month with some new twist on our chosen theme.

In a strange sort of way I feel the Celtic Guide, itself, has become a bit of a game changer. With loose restrictions on the type of articles that can be submitted, we are able to mix history with mystery, fact with fairies, accepted Celtic countries with countries that simply have strong Celtic ties. Opposing views get equal billing. Photographers are able to share their dramatic shots of Scotland, Ireland and Wales. Poets, artists, researchers, fantasy writers, the highly educated and the highly curious all melt into a new and FREE medium quickly spreading across the Celtic world.

Thanks to all the writers, readers, photographers, illustrators, poets and dreamers who have made this e-magazine a game changer for the Celtic Culture fan.

http://www.celticguide.com • celticguide@gmail.com

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How many times have you heard someone say, “It’s cast in stone,” or “It’s not cast in stone?” Actually, nothing is cast in stone. It can be “cast in concrete” or other types of liquid-to-solid substances. But stone is stone and the proper expression is “carved in stone.”

This “game changer” story has two types of characters – a couple of Scottish gentlemen who rediscovered lost knowledge (who says there is no lost knowledge to rediscover?) and stone, which allowed the Celts, and many other cultures, to create sites that have lasted since very ancient times - stones sites that have often defied any modern explanation of how they were built (again that lost knowledge thing going on).

The game changing of our two Scottish innovators will soon become obvious. The game changing that the mastering of stone work brought to the Celts is also obvious in innumerable locations through the Celtic lands.

So let’s start with stone.Below is a photo Ron Henderson took while

on a trip to the Outer Hebrides islands of Lewis and Harris. This is just one site of many found all over Scotland, Ireland and other countries –

most still remaining an enigma. One theory is that at least some stone sites like this were built as a fence, of sorts, to corral animals during a hunt, forcing them to follow a path where they could more easily be captured. Other theories are that they are ceremonial, or simply the final remnants of a fort mostly made of wood. The ceremonial aspect seems to be the one most often cited, at times in conjunction with burials.

What is truly lost to history is how these great stones, weighing hundreds of tons, were hosted into the air at sites like Stonehenge, or even non-Celtic places like Machu Picchu, Easter Island and the Egyptian pyramids. One theory is that the stones were dragged up inclines made of dirt and gravel, inclines that were later cleared away. A recent theory shows that it would be much easier to roll the stones on their shorter sides, rather than drag them along their longest side. Imagine someone trying to move a refrigerator by themselves and it is easy to see that a lever could potential allow them to roll the appliance on the short sides, whereas trying to drag the length of the refrigerator with a rope would be just about impossible. I tend to believe humankind did not need ancient aliens in UFOs

Cast in concrete, carved in stone . . .by James A. McQuiston

to move large stones. I have a little more faith in humans than that. As the old saying goes, “Where there’s a will, there’s a way.” Perhaps a more significant question would be – “Why bother to move such large stones when you could just build out of smaller cut stones? One answer to this might be the need to impress or awe subjects or enemies with a show of might, demonstrated by erecting large standing stones.

I asked Ron his thoughts on the subject. You see, not only is Ron an avid hiker and photo-journalist who has traveled throughout Scotland, but he is also a retired stone carver himself.

At right are two examples of his work. The top is in honor of the Scotland freedom movement. The lower picture is a hand-fasting symbol carved for a friend in Florida. (Can you imagine the shipping cost?)

Ron’s simple answer on how extremely large stones were raised is, “ I’m buggered if I know! I guess it’s just something that they knew, but we don’t.”

This isn’t the only bit of lost knowledge involving stones, though.

Somewhat unique to Scotland are stone forts or castles that have been vitrified or heated so intensely that the stones have fused together. Problem is there is nothing that was known to ancient man that could raise enough heat to melt stone - or was there?

Again, we turn to Ron’s words - Regarding vitrified forts, there is an

awful lot of nonsense talked. The usual baloney is that they were the result of the forts being attacked and set on fire. It doesn’t work. They built a replica of a fort in Aberdeenshire some years ago and set the wooden posts and timbers, set into the structure, on fire.

Nothing happened to the stonework! They then started to bring in wood by

the lorry load and threw it onto the structure and this went on for a day or so. Lorry after lorry arrived on the scene and they threw on more wood. After a few days, when it had all cooled down, they climbed in and found

that the vitrification simply hadn’t happened except for one or two small examples where a few pieces of stone had lost some of their integrity and had partially fused to a very limited extent with other stones.

It was stated that they would have needed to have cut down and burned every forest in Aberdeenshire to vitrify even just one fort, and even at that they couldn’t be sure that it would give a satisfactory result. Wood just doesn’t give off enough heat when it’s burning to melt stone.

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Here are some facts.Quartz – Melting point starts at 860 deg.

C but it finally melts at between 1400 and 1700 deg. C. The maximum temperature of wood burning is 900 deg. C, though it can reach a ‘flash’ heat of up to 1100 deg. C.

Using charcoal instead of wood? Charcoal burning can reach a maximum of around 1200 deg. C. So where and how can wood or charcoal heat quartz up to its melting point so that rock and stones flow with viscous properties? – It can’t!

It was suggested to me many years ago that these early people may have raised long copper rods to attract lightning bolts. It may also have been that they used some sort of oil or grease to increase the heat.

Some research undertaken around 100 years ago showed that if forts were covered with large amounts of peat and were then set fire, and allowed to burn away internally, there is the possibility that enough heat would have been generated to melt the stone. This would only have worked over a long and continuous period of time.

So here we have two bits of lost knowledge involving ancient stonework – stonework that has left behind irrefutable proof of the existence of these ancient cultures, and of the intelligence that allowed them to do things that even modern-day stone workers consider a great challenge, and with much less sophisticated equipment.

Stonework was absolutely a game changer for the Celts as castles offered far more protection from the enemy than any wooden fort or earthenwork ever could.

Many castles built near the sea have been dramatically destroyed compared to their inland counterparts. There is no mystery here as these castle were built to withstand arrows and spears, not the cannon shot of the king’s navy. Inland castles were typically spared simply because they were out of range of ship cannon.

The other thing stone did for the Celts was preserve their story for posterity, at least to some degree of fragmented form. I believe the use of large stones was more ceremonial or utilitarian for that day and age, and less of a plan for preserving history for centuries to come - however it does just that for us.

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http://www.yesscotland.net

In 2014 Scotland will have a referendum to decide whether we go forward into the future as a mature independent Nation, or else forgo the rights to liberty that our ancestors fought for, and allow ourselves to continue to be governed by another country whose culture and views are often inimical to those of the Scots.

Who will take the battle horn and waken our countrymen from their slumber? Will it be you?

Vote Yes, in 2014.

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We may never recover the lost knowledge of hauling around large stones weighing hundreds of tons, or melting stones together – but then again there is a chance we might, someday.

One other major role stone played in Scottish history is that, as legend has it, the Knights Templar blended into the local stone mason organizations and from this alliance came the Freemasons, one of the most influential game changers in Celtic and world history.

The following are examples of two more bits of lost knowledge rediscovered by men of Scots blood. One also involves stone, and so we’ll begin there.

In ancient times very hard stones like granite were somehow polished to a high degree. The method used was unfortunately lost until the practice was revived under the genius of Alexander MacDonald of Aberdeen, Scotland.

In 1820 he moved from Perthshire (where Celtic Guide author Ron Henderson happens to live, and cut stone) to Aberdeen, where the main stone that was quarried was a very hard granite.

Small cut pieces of stone from Aberdeen paved the streets of London, while larger chunks provided a foundation for the London Bridge. The use of Aberdeen granite was widespread, however, it always had a rough cut finish to it.

According to local Aberdeen historian Lorna Dey, MacDonald’s inspiration for finding a way to polish the granite came from a visit to an Egyptian collection of polished granite on display at the British Museum.

Somewhere in MacDonald’s imagination he paired up the new force of steam power, developed by fellow Scot James Watt, with sand and water from the Aberdeen shore. He developed a system where large steam-powered discs, using sand and water, could polish granite to a shine not seen since the days of the Pharoahs.

MacDonald took his ideas to new heights when he began fashioning polished statues made from granite. It has been said that the first statue made from granite in modern times was raised in the1840s by MacDonald and a crew

of around 100 men. Interestingly, MacDonald enlisted another stone sculptor in the project – his name? –Thomas Campbell.

No MacDonald/Campbell feud here!As perfect as his statues were, they could not

compete with marble and bronze, which could be more easily worked by a single sculptor. Still, Alexander MacDonald forever changed the way granite was polished, while uncovering ancient, human knowledge that had lain hidden for a few thousand years.

And surprisingly he wasn’t alone!

John Smeaton, shown above, in this image from Wikipedia Commons, was born in England. In the background is the Eddystone Lighthouse that he built, which brought forth another major piece of lost ancient knowledge.

According to Black’s The Surnames of Scotland, Smeaton, Smitton, or Smiton was a Scottish name. John Smiton, a musician in Edinburgh, Scotland in 1774, was a cousin to John Smeaton, builder of the Eddystone Lighthouse.

In fact, there are even Smeaton place-names in Scotland such as Smeaton near Edinburgh, Great, Little, and Kirk Smeaton(s) in North Yorkshire, and Smeeton in Leicestershire.

Smeaton wasn’t the first builder of a lighthouse here. The first two lighthouses at this dangerous location, off the coast of Cornwall, England, had fallen victim to the sea.

Smeaton knew he would have to do better.Already an accomplished engineer, he began

to study ancient Roman techniques of building bridge foundations out of a concrete that could set up or harden under water. This knowledge had been lost for over a thousand years. After the fall of the Roman Empire circa 400 AD, the art of making cement and concrete had succumbed to the dark ages.

The Romans had discovered that mixing lime mortar, sand and gravel made a rock hard substance very similar to today’s concrete. However, taking it one step further, they found that adding volcanic ash to the mixture, as well as a few trace elements, caused the concrete to set up even under water.

The Romans used their special concrete to build the Coliseum and the Pantheon. This author has visited both of these structures. While the Coliseum is a grand structure, it is a little worse for wear. However, the Pantheon, ignoring its style, could have been built yesterday, so smooth are its walls and concrete ceiling!

This was exactly what John Smeaton needed to build a foundation for his lighthouse. After some experimentation, he found that slag from iron ore processing was one of the main secrets.

Slag is the partially vitrified, or melted together, by-product of the process of smelting iron ore – a process which separates the desired metal from the unwanted elements. Slag is usually a mixture of metal oxides and silicon dioxide. Bingo!

The same type of silicates that existed in the Roman volcanic ash were present in the slag of iron production. Each also had trace elements of metals, particularly aluminum. There is a bit more to the processing story, but the result was that Smeaton rediscovered a secret that had been hidden for so very long. He is credited with inventing modern-day concrete and for the

revival of its use in underwater projects. Smeaton began his lighthouse project in

1756, which also dates the modern-age usage of concrete. While his structure lasted much longer than the two previous lighthouses, it, too, eventually fell victim to the raging sea, and has since been replaced.

Smeaton wasn’t finished with his game changing role just yet. In 1774, the same year his cousin John was entertaining Edinburgh audiences, Smeaton found that quicklime made an even harder cement. He continued to perfect concrete, and others took up his cause. In 1818, the substance he had helped rediscover made its debut in America when used for the Erie Canal.

The rest is history, as they say.

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This drawing, circa 1759, shows the inner workings of John Smeaton’s lighthouse, the first structure to have a water-setting concrete foundation since the Roman Empire, over 1300 years earlier.

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St. Columba (521-597AD) was an Irish Gaelic missionary monk who was of royal descent. He belonged to Clan O’Donnell and was the great-great-grandson of Niall of the Nine Hostages, an Irish king. Columba’s given name was actually Colum, which signifies a dove. He was also referred to as Colum Chille which meant “dove of the church.”

Columba entered the monastic school of Moville, where legend says the man changed water into wine. To further advance his training, he eventually entered the monastery of Clonard, which was governed at the time by Finnian. While Columba was there, he was one of the twelve students who studied under St. Finnian. The men later became known as the Twelve Apostles of Ireland.

In 563, Columba left Ireland for Scotland. With his eleven companions in tow, Columba was granted land on the island of Iona, off the west coast of Scotland. It was only after Columba spent several years with the Scots that the man then began his greatest mission of all: the conversion of the Picts.

In addition to his notorious work as a missionary, Columba founded several churches in the Hebrides and worked to turn his monastery at Iona into a school for missionaries. He was a poet, statesman, and his name held meaning to Scotsmen and Irishmen alike. Columba worked hard, never spending an hour without study or prayer. While at home on Iona, he frequently engaged in writing. Some say he wrote more than 300 books in his own hand, two of which have been preserved to modern day. Historically, Columba was revered as a warrior saint, often called upon for victory in battle.

When Columba died on Iona, his monks buried him in the abbey that he created. Two hundred years later when the Vikings invaded the island, Columba’s relics were removed and divided between Ireland and Scotland.

The history of St. Columba is still preserved all over the world today. For instance, Columba is the patron saint of Derry, Ireland. The Catholic Diocese of Argyll and the Isles was also placed under the patronage of St. Columba, as well as the Church of Scotland and numerous Catholic schools and parishes throughout the nation. His feast is kept in Scotland and Ireland on June 9th. And the stone pillow on which he slept is said to be preserved on Iona.

When a person sees the Celtic cross on Iona, they cannot help but be reminded of the miracles of St. Columba.

The plaque at this site reads in part - “Originally supporting a thatched roof, these earth and stone walls, set on the uneven bedrock, are all that remains of a small mediaeval chapel dedicated to St. Columba. The only historical record attached to the building took place in 1223, when Godred, son of the King of the Isles of Man, was resting here while pursuing his Uncle Olaf for deserting his aunt. Olaf, together with Paul Balkisson (the sheriff of Skye), were keeping a wary eye on their pursuer until at the dead of night they launched five boats from a nearby shore and encircled the island. Godred and his followers made a manful attempt at resistance, but in vain. At about the 9th hour, Olaf and Paul Bakisson invaded . . . and cut down all whom they found outside the confines of the church.”

St. Columba written by Victoria Roberts photo by Cameron Morrison

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In 1285, King Alexander III granted a charter to Sir John de Lyndsay, who was Great Chamberlain of Scotland, to hold the lands of Wauchope in Dumfriesshire as a barony; as one of the six great barons of the realm, Sir John swore to acknowledge the Maid of Norway as heir to the Scottish throne, and in 1289, was one of the attorneys for the trustees of the deceased Alexander III. His son, Sir Philip, took part with Edward of England in the Wars of Succession, invaded Scotland with Percy, and was present at the siege of Stirling, but went over to Bruce after Bannockburn, and so retained his estate in Wauchopedale.

The chief seat of the Lindsays from an early date has been Crawford Castle in Upper Clydesdale, and although they chose for themselves the heraldic symbol of a swan, seldom did they seek their goals with anything less than ferocious desire.

Among the most famous deeds of those early Lindsays of Crawford was the role played by Sir James at the battle of Otterburn in 1388; when the Scottish knights drove back the English to where the heroic Earl of Douglas had fallen, it was he who knelt and asked the stricken Earl how he fared, receiving the celebrated, hallmark answer: “Dying in my armour, as my fathers have done, thank God!”

It was also James Lindsay who, at Douglas’s command, again raised the standard of the Bloody Heart, and led the Scots to victory. This doughty warrior died unmarried; his mother

was Egidia, sister of King Robert II.Sir Alexander of Glenesk became ancestor

of the senior line of the family, but in 1365, resigned to his youngest brother, Sir William Lindsay, the Haddingtonshire barony of the Byres, and it is from that youngest brother that the famous line of the Lindsays of the Byres and the Earls of Lindsay of the present day are descended.

It was also Sir Alexander who, during John of Gaunt’s invasion of Scotland, attacked and put to the sword the crew of one of the English ships which had landed above Queen’s Ferry. His son, Sir David, was a famous knight, riding the course at the tournament at London Bridge in 1390. He married Elizabeth, daughter of King Robert III, in 1398, was raised to the peerage as Earl of Crawford, and in 1403, was appointed the High Admiral of Scotland.

The great-grandson of that champion of the London Tournament was known as the “Tiger Earl”; while his father was still alive, the Tiger had been chosen chief justiciar by the monks of Arbroath, but, discovering him to be too

by Cass and Deborah Wright

Lindsay

Lindsay Tartan and Shield

expensive a protector, they transferred the office to Ogilvie of Inverquharity. Righteously insulted, Lindsay raised his men and marched to attack the Ogilvies at the Abbey. As the battle was about to begin, his father, the old 3rd Earl of Crawford, whose wife was an Ogilvie, came galloping between as a peacemaker, and was mortally wounded by a soldier who did not know his rank. Infuriated by the tragedy, the Lindsays attacked savagely, cut the Ogilvies to pieces, and then burned their lands.

The Tiger Earl married Elizabeth Dunbar of the House of March, and the ruthless

degradation of that house by James I made him a bitter enemy of the Stewart kings. In this way, he made a bond with the great Earl of Douglas and the Earl of Ross that they should take each other’s part in every quarrel, and against every man, the King himself not excepted.

Douglas could rival the King with his army in the south of Scotland; Ross had nearly absolute authority in the north, and the Tiger Earl’s word was indisputable law in Perth & Kincardine. Their league grew in strength until it threatened the throne itself, and James II managed to break it only by the murder of Douglas by his own

Nearly dead center in this old map of Scotland is the land of the Crauford or Crawford family, which was actually the Lindsay family, one of whom was raised to the title of Earl of Crawford in 1403. This gentleman, David Lindsay, was a tournament knight who married the daughter of King Robert III of Scotland and thus gained the peerage of Earl of Crawford. He was also appointed as High Admiral of Scotland. Those who adopted the Crawford name, along with those who remained Lindsays, continued to gain fame in Scotland, Ireland and even Colonial America, where they were staunch supporters of the American Revolution.

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hand, when he was being hosted at Stirling Castle.

The House of Lindsay was more fortunate: the Tiger Earl was engaged & defeated by the King’s forces under the Gordon Earl of Huntly, but afterward managed to appeal himself before the King at Court, appearing in beggar’s weeds, with feet and head bare, and so obtained forgiveness, and was granted a royal pardon.

James fulfilled his decree to make the highest stone the lowest at the Earl’s Castle of Finhaven by going to the top of one of its turrets, then tossing to the ground a pebble which he found on the battlement there. Despite all this royal clemency, the Tiger Earl died six months later.

Maud, the Tiger Earl’s daughter, married Archibald “Bell-the-Cat”, Douglas Earl of Angus.

David, 5th Earl of Crawford, the Tiger’s eldest son, was created the Duke of Montrose by James III – the first example of a dukedom being conferred on a Scotsman not of Royal descent. He celebrated his ascendency by exchanging the Crawford estates in Clydesdale with his brother-in-law “Bell-the-Cat”, who had achieved mastership of the House of Douglas, for lands in Angus.

At Flodden, David led part of the vanguard of the Scottish host, and fell beside his first King’s son, James IV.

In the early 1500’s, Clan Lindsay branched off the cadet House of Edzell, which most prominently produced David Lindsay of the Mount, a celebrated playwright who dared to satirized the corruption he saw infiltrating the Catholic Church during his lifetime.

The Lindsay Earls of Crawford continued to play a part in notable events of Scottish history.

At the banquet following the marriage of Queen Mary and Darnley, while the Earl of Atholl acted as server and the Earl of Morton as carver, the Earl of Crawford was cupbearer, and, after the fall of the Queen at Langside, was among the Scottish nobles who remained faithful to her cause.

This line of chiefs of the Lindsays came to an end at the death of Ludovic, the 16th Earl, in 1652; still, Colin Lindsay, the third Earl of Balcarres, was “out” in the 1715 Uprising with his fellow Jacobites, and narrowly escaped a charge of treason for his loyalties, owing largely to his long friendship with the English Duke of Marlborough.

Though thwarted at seemingly every turn in many of their most historic campaigns, the courage of men like the great Tiger Earl yet prowls through the hearts & minds of Lindsay descendants, even today.

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This material is just a sampling of one of the 60 clan names and legends appearing in the upcoming book -

by Cass and Deborah Wright

Follow future issues of Celtic Guide for further information about publication details. . . . and thank you for joining us at the hearth ! - DW

Early woodcut of Balcarres

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The Two PatricksSt Patrick has been credited with converting

the whole of Ireland to Christianity. Most people now believe there were two ‘Patricks’, one is really Palladius, a Gaul, and the other Patricius, a Briton; both lived in the 5th century AD. Palladius likely came from the southern half or central plain of Ireland where Caisel (Cashel) was the capital of the Eoganacht, an early Christian dynasty.

Note: Cashel comes from Latin castellum which indicates contact with Rome during the Late Empire.

PalladiusPalladius was a follower of Pelagius whose

doctrines were discredited by St Jerome and St Augustine of Hippo. To keep him from causing more controversy, Pope Celestine made him a bishop and shipped him off to Ireland in 431 AD. Prosper of Aquitaine wrote in his Chronicon (Chronicle): ‘Palladius, ordained by Pope Celestine, is sent to the Irish who believe in Christ, as their first bishop’.

In Latin the entry was to the effect that a bishop was sent ad Scottos in Christum credentes. I believe the Scotti in this period were a tribe in the north of Ireland and the Iverneri were a tribe in the south of Ireland. In the 6th century Scotia referred to Ireland not Scotland. Scotland was called Alba and that is still the name for Scotland in Gaelic. Not until centuries later did Scotia refer to Scotland and not Ireland.

Palladius has often been confused with his near contemporary St Patrick, but Patrick worked in Ulster (Armagh) and Connacht, and Palladius in Leinster (Kildare). However, Patrick gets the credit for converting Ireland, and St Brigid became the founding saint of the church of Kildare. Palladius was almost forgotten possibly because of the Pelagian controversy.

St PatrickSt Patrick likely came from the SW of

Scotland or the NW of England. According to a much recopied manuscript, he was born in Bannavem Taberniae which might be Banna Venta Berniae, whose modern place name is Birdoswald near Carlisle, the northern frontier of Roman Britain. His first language was British (later called Welsh), once spoken throughout what is now called England and the south and east of Scotland as well as Wales.

His father, Calpornius, was a decurion or hereditary alderman, entrusted with collecting taxes for Rome in a vicus (lesser town). Tax collectors were expected to cover the shortfall in taxes caused by tax evaders--unless they were in holy orders.

Patrick’s grandfather was also a priest and tax collector. Clerical celibacy was not enforced until after 1100.

Note: Patricius means patrician, one who has a noble father.

Raiders from Ireland captured Patrick about 430 when he was 15 or 16 years old, and he lived as a slave in Ireland for 6 years. He escaped but returned to convert people in the north and west of Ireland. The Epistola (Letter) and Confessio (Declaration) are two manuscripts which Patrick wrote himself late in life. In his writing he apologised for his poor Latin, which was a bit sparse but acceptable, and indicates a continental education. In the Epistola, Patrick castigates Caroticus (aka Ceredig), a British ruler, for raiding and enslaving Patrick’s neophytes (new Christians) in the north of Ireland. Patrick was furious especially as the raiders were nominally Christian themselves.

The Confessio shows him to be a humble and hardworking man. He was also a man who displayed ‘great independence of mind and

by Sharron GunnSt Patrick & the Conversion of Ireland

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tenacity’. And he viewed woman as ‘active workers in the missionary field. The saint’s kindliness and generosity made his work appealing to all he met, including women and the young’.

He probably became deacon about AD 445, priest about 450 and then bishop in 460. Normally a man was a deacon for five years; men were not ordained priests before age 30 or consecrated bishop much before age 50. Although 7th century annalists placed Patrick’s mission in Ireland between 432 and 461, it was more likely to have been between 461 and 492 when he died.

In later life Patrick was condemned by ‘seniors’ (elders) in the British Church, but later vindicated. His Confessio was written in response to the accusations and gives a good idea of his work in Ireland. From it, we can infer the seniors thought that he lacked the authority to convert the heathen outside of his province, and that he was acting for profit.

The seniors criticised Patrick for dereliction of duty for leaving the community over whom he was constituted bishop. This concern about bishops who left their flock was a problem. Bishops had gone to another see to conduct business or to find a richer, more prestigious see. Canon 19 of the council of Elvira in Spain (c. 300) was re-affirmed by the council of Arles in 452, and passed into the legislation of the Gaulish church:

Bishops, priests and deacons must not leave their churches to engage in business, and must not go about the provinces in search of profitable markets; indeed, to restrict their activities, let them send son, or freedman, or merchant, or friend, or whomsoever, about their affairs, and if they want to do business, let them do it in their own province.

The theological objection seems to be derived

from the early view of the relationship between the bishop and his church. His election by an

almost independent Christian community and his essential fatherhood among his people, as standing in the place of Christ himself, appear to have given rise to the concept of a mystical union existing between the bishop and his see which was expressed as being akin to the marriage bond. (Hess 1958: 71)

But Patrick’s mission to the pagans was inspired from a dream which he believed came from God. Far from profiting from ‘wandering’ he sold his patrimony in Britain to finance it. The seniors saw the money as Patrick’s investment in the new territory, but Patrick had to pay for safe conducts, guards and attendants. He says he worked among the Hiberiones and the Scotti.

The raiders who captured him were the elite of the Scotti, whose business was raiding in order to make themselves wealthier and able to attract more followers. He converted the sons and daughters of the Scotti and he mentions the conversion of one noblewoman ‘of Scottic origin’ in particular. He justified his leaving his civilised home among Christians to go work among barbarians as a great sacrifice as was leaving the community he organised to convert the pagans who captured him. Both were proper.

After the death of St Patrick in 592, the Christian communities in Ireland were small; most people were still pagan. Many of those baptised were Christian in name only and were often apostate.

A Private OrganisationThe church described by the First Synod of St

Patrick (which actually dates to the 6th century) was not yet accepted as part of Gaelic society. It is still a private organisation, not governed by secular law. Its clergy do not hold their honour price according to their ecclesiastical rank, as 7th century clerics would. A cleric’s status was dependant on his family; in secular society he could be the son of a king or a slave, and that determined his honour price. If of higher status he would pay more if he offended, and, if the

victim of a crime, he would be paid greater compensation.

In the beginning of the 6th century if a Christian committed a crime, such as murder, theft, adultery, failure to pay debts, and so on, the only action taken against him by the Christian community was excommunication. A Christian was forbidden to call one who has wronged him to the secular courts; disputes had to be dealt with within the church.

The church was a community within a still-pagan society and held itself separate from the world. The alms of the pagan were not accepted. The church had not been accepted in secular law; Christians are rarely mentioned. The clerics of the diocese have to turn up at matins and vespers; yet they may be married.

The church is served by bishops, priests, deacons, lectors, psalmists, ostiaries, but monks and virgins exist. These are people under vows of asceticism and celibacy, but they travelling about and they do not seem to be entirely withdrawn from ordinary life.

Saint Patrick’s LivesTwo Lives of St Patrick, written in the mid-

7th century, portrays a very different Patrick. He has magical encounters with druids where the saint bests every king and druid who came his way. By 900 the Vita Tripartia (Tripartate Life) shows that Patrick is still winning; he browbeats an angel for a better arrangement with God.

But these were Lives written several centuries after the death of the saint who wrote the Confessio and the Epistola. And impressing contemporaries with the power of the saint, not his sanctity, was the motivation behind them. The Lives seem to say, ‘My saint and my God is more powerful than all your druids and gods put together.’

In the Life of St Finchú of Brigown, when the king of Munster is attacked, his nobles advise him: ‘let us sent to the slaughterous warrior to the south of us, even to Finchú of Brigown’ [a bishop], and Finchú comes

with his crosier, which was named Cenn-chathach (‘head-battller’). When the king wants to borrow Cenn-chathach the saint will not give it up, so that ‘on himself might be the glory of routing the foe’. (Ó Cróinín 2005, 314)

This was very popular among contemporaries as the hagiographer hoped it would be; he borrowed heavily from the secular prose tales which glorified heroic society with its emphasis on fighting and feasting champions. The Lives reflect secular morality which contradicted the monastic rules which required the ‘shunning of contention, gentle speech’. Christians were to refrain from ‘conceit of mind without abusement, haughty speech with subordination … accusations without compassion, reproaches without reflection’. (Ó Cróinín 2005, 315)

The Lives were written to deal with conditions at the time of writing: to show the power of the saints in the face of their opposition in the distant past, in the hope that Christianity would continue to win converts by appealing to the values of secular society. And it worked.

The heroic values expressed in the Lives were understood by contemporaries if not always by us. However, the Epistola and the Confessio remain exemplaries for Christians up to the present day.

SourcesLiam de Paor, Patrick’s World, 1996Liam & Máire de Paor, Early Christian

Ireland, 1958Daibhi Ó Cróinín, A New History of Ireland:

Prehistoric and Early Ireland, vol IWilliam F Skene, Celtic Scotland, 3 vol., 1886John R Walsh & Thomas Bradley, A History

of the Irish Church 400-700, 1991Charles-Joseph Hefele (Karl J Hefele),

Histoire des conciles d’après les documents originaux, 1907 -- in French www.archive.org/stream/histoiredesconciles72hefele#page/n7/mode/2up

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New to Celtic Guide pages, Susan Tomory presents interesting theories about how some Scythians, who are said to have settled Scotland and Ireland, made their way there through Hungary. If so, these people could be the ultimate game changers in the history of the Picts and Celts of the British Isles.

Hungarian schools do not teach the possibility of any Scottish-Hungarian connections. Chance meetings or visits with the Scottish people inevitably initiate a line of thinking, especially when one hears the first syllable of so many Scottish names – Mac – which seems an echo of a distant past to Hungarian ears.

In the Scottish language Mac means a boy, a descendant, the seed of someone. The Irish generally use Mc, although examples of both can be found in each country.

Further, the name MacArthur can be translated into Hungarian as the mag (seed) of Arthur (Artur magja), where the Scottish Mac and the Hungarian Mag appear to be twin brothers.

After this linguistic curiosity, one begins to pay increased attention to the very Hungarian sounding geographic names in the British Isles, like Lake Bala, the River Don and the River Thames which all have their counterparts in the Carpathian Basin as Lake Balaton, River Duna and River Temes.

One learns of the historical hardships of our Scottish acquaintances, their unfair treatment by historians, their love for freedom, their generous spirit – and all these ignite a feeling of kinship in any Hungarian soul, since their fate and spiritual aspirations are very much akin to those of the Scottish peoples. Even their beloved instrument, the bagpipe is familiar, since the Scots also “blow their sorrow into sheepskin” – as the Hungarian saying goes – like their Hungarian counterparts.

The name of the River Don encompasses a large territory, with identical culture and language, from the Russian plains, through Hungary, all the way to the British Isles. A small box with Magyar runic (rovás) characters, from the 8th century A.D. – which was found in Ruthwell in Northumbria – also indicates some ancient connection between these cultures.

When and where did this connection begin? The twin of the Hungarian Mag (seed), the Scottish Mac, or Irish Mc leads us into the Scythian antiquity of the Scottish people and, through this, to our ancient homeland in the Carpathian Basin.

The well-known Scottish fight for freedom and independence is not a new and fleeting interest; it goes back untold centuries. The Declaration of Arbroath – composed in 1320 in the Latin language – was made public on April 6, 1320 at the Arbroath Abbey, which is not

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SCYTHIAN - SCOTTISH – Magyar

by Susan TomoryThe Connection

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far to the north from the famous St. Andrew’s cathedral. The goal of this declaration was to convince Pope John XXII, in Avignon, that the Scottish people formed an independent nation and for this reason the British demands for their throne were not just.

The famous Scottish warrior, Robert the Bruce defeated the British at Bannockburn in 1314 and reoccupied the border town of Berwick-on-Tweed in 1319. For Hungarians, the most interesting section of this declaration is the part where they talk about their Scythian origin.

This Scythian connection is the Celts’ ancient inheritance which they do not fail to hand over to their children, as do the Hungarian people – even under the watchful eye of hostile occupiers. This common Scythian connection of the Scottish and the Hungarian people may open up many hitherto unresearched avenues of relationship between these cultures.

The history of the Scots is intertwined with the history of the Celtic population of the British Isles. The history of the British Isles leads us back into a pre-nation antiquity. Their legends and landscapes are filled with beings of light, fairies, and giants.

The first historical people living there, recognized by today’s scholars, may be the Picts. Originally, they came from Scythia in the third century A.D – a rather recent event. Their king Sodrik died in battle, while attempting to occupy land on the British Isles. They were banished to Caithness, where their population increased greatly. Their society was matrilineal.

At the time of their arrival, they had their own script, which appears to contain a pre-Celtic language, according to western scholars.

The name by which they called themselves is not known. The term Pict was given to them by the Romans. Drust, the son of the best-known Pict king, Erp, “ruled for a hundred years”, mainly in the fifth century A.D.

They were noted for their tattoos, and the name, Cruithne, given to them by the Irish,

means “picture people”. The Picts and Scots united in the 9th century. The Pict matrilineal society may have paved the road toward the acceptance of Queen Margaret’s strong rule.

The cult of the “Stone of Destiny” goes back to Pict origins. Their coronations used to take place in Scone, near Perth. The person to be crowned was seated on a stone.

As Scythian descendants, the early Scots occupied more and more lands. Finally Kenneth MacAlpine, claiming Pict ancestry, had himself crowned King of the Picts and Scots.

According to some legends, originally a Princess Tea brought the Stone of Destiny to Ireland, where she married Tamair. According to Christianized mythology, Jacob slept on this stone when he saw the angels walk up and down on a ladder between Heaven and Earth. This belief places the origin of this stone in the Sumerian City of Ur, where it was probably also held sacred and probably used in marriage ceremonies or some other holy occasions, and it was for this reason that it was brought to the British Isles, so far from Sumer. The names Tea and Tamair have a linguistic connection with the Sumerian, and the names of the rivers Temes and Thames are also connected with the Magyar szem culture.

Tara’s landscape is adorned with round, flat topped mounds clearly discernible even today. These are connected with the Hungarian tár-tér words of return, and also the name Turan.

This Stone of Destiny has been used ever since for coronations. Prince Fergus, the founder of Dalriada brought this stone from Ireland to the Island of Iona. This name is connected with the Jász-Magyar group’s name of “Iona.” Later, Kenneth brought the stone to Scone. From here Edward ordered it to be taken to Westminster, from where Queen Elisabeth II ordered it to be taken back to Scotland in 1996.

Since there are no coincidences in this world, it is interesting to note that the Scottish Coronation stone, the Stone of Destiny moved back to Scotland ready for a new coronation, and

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at the same time, the Hungarian Holy Crown moved back into the Parliament building also ready to crown a new king.

The Hungarian word oath (eskű) contains the word stone (kű). According to ethnographer Adorján Magyar, in pre-Bible days, some of the Magyar nations used to swear an oath on a meteor-stone, which was considered pure, uncontaminated, coming from above. Such a holy stone today is the black obelisk of the Muslim world, which they call Kaba and sometimes even Csaba.

In Hungary, a governing council of seven people ruled the country in the absence of the king. The same custom is echoed in the persons of the Seven Dukes in Prince Árpád’s time.

Molmutin, the founder of a new royal family, divided his rule according to a dual kingship between his sons Belinus and Brennius. Belinus was the main king; Brennius became lord over the Northern parts of the country. Hungarian ancestry also knows well the idea of dual

kingships. The names of Belinus and Brennius conjure many Magyar connections especially with the Palóc and Avar ethnic groups.

The newly awakening Scottish interest in their Scythian ancestry turns their attention toward the Scythians of the Middle East, Egypt and the “lost tribes of Israel.” At this point I would like to remind our Scottish brethren that, even though historians of our days do not like to think about the Scythian presence there, the still standing walls of Scythopolis are testimony to their Scythian builders, inhabitants and rulers.

According to the origin saga by Diodorus Siculus, the descendants of Scythes extended their rule to the Nile River in Egypt, then to the Eastern Ocean on one side, and the Caspian Sea and the Maeotis Lake on the other. The Scottish legends about Egypt are also supported by historical works. According to Hungarian legends, Palos, the son of Skythes rests in one of the caves of the holy Pilis Mountains awaiting his time of awakening. We also have to pay attention

Celtic & Roman BritainThe Romans conquered England and Wales but not the Celtic tribes of the north, but Roman camps there suggest they had plans to do so. Meanwhile the Romans made themselves comfortable in their towns and their leaders in palatial villae. They certainly would have wowed the locals yet, most Britons never adopted Latin. For British peoples daily life went on. They sowed and harvested whether for their own leaders or for Romans. They lived in the same sort of housing as their ancestors.

The more lasting legacy of the Romans was Christianity and the introduction of Anglo-Saxon mercenaries, who liked what they saw and brought their friends and relatives to settle down. The British resistance to this set of invaders was remembered in the legends of King Arthur – the earlier ones before the late medieval addition of knights and a round table.

Dates: 3- 31 March 2013More Info: Celtic & Roman Britain

www.savvyauthors.com/vb/showevent.php?eventid=1809

Instructor: Sharron Gunn, w/a Sheila Currie, lives in British Columbia, and teaches Irish & Scottish History as non-credit university courses.

– 18 –

to Professor Lajos Szántai’s lecture in which he tells us about the coronation of Hungarian kings from the house of Árpád, as represented in the Illuminated Képes Krónika. The to-be- crowned King is standing on a “dobogó”, or a podium. The word dobogó is connected with the holy Center of the Pilis, the Dobogókő, the Stone of the Beating Heart. There seems to be some unknown, holy connection between this stone and the Stone of Destiny, in the hope of resurrection. According to the Dalai Lama, who visited Dobogókő, the heart chakra of the world lies here.

According to other Scottish legends, one of their noblemen married a Pharaoh’s daughter named Scota and they have used her name as their own since then. Later, the Scots were expelled from Egypt; they wandered for forty-two years looking for a new homeland and finally settled in Spain. This wandering preceded the Mosaic wandering by centuries. The Scots remained in Spain for a thousand years and later moved to Ireland’s Argyll County, which the Scots called Dalriada in their own language. The first home of their kings was Dunadd. All these names are connected in form and meaning with the Hungarian language.

Before the Scottish occupation of the British Isles, a queen by the name of Cessair ruled there, whose father was Bith, son of Noah. The name Bith is connected with the Hungarian viz (water) – which is a logical name for someone who survived the flood – and it is a part of the Hungarian B-S word-group. According to another legend, the sole survivor of this region was Fintan, whose name is related to the Hungarian word fény. According to legend he was one of the ancient “shape shifting” people, a talent which is often also mentioned in Hungarian stories along with the search for eternal life.

Before the Scottish arrival to the British Isles, a developed, Hungarian-related culture already existed here and in Scotland. Later, the influx of Magyar-related peoples continued in several

waves. One of the last such waves was during the time of Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius when – according to a military agreement – Sarmatian and Jász military which formed the 6th Roman legion, came to serve on the British Isles. When we follow their presence we find many Hungarian related geographic names, but they all preceded the Sarmatian arrival, since they were already firmly established in the geography of the British Isles.

Professor Littleton brings the Sarmatians into relationship with the Scythians and the Alans. He believes that the King Arthur legend originated with the Sarmatians. He also identifies Sir Lancelot with the Alans, who arrived here in the 5th century A.D., who had a personage with the same name and role. He also believes the following to be part of the Sarmatian-Alanic cultural sphere: the sword of Arthur, his round table and his heroes and the legend of the Holy Grail, which all became embellished during the adoption of Christianity with the legends of the new faith (which were never really supported by the official church.)

The Celtic and Scottish population of the British Isles were not unfamiliar with these Hungarian place names, which they had known from ancient times, from the Carpathian Basin, and also from Egypt. The Hungarian sounding place names are also supported by local legends which show a close tie with the Hungarian legends. Here I mention only a few:

The White Horse was a famous symbol of the ancient inhabitants of the British Isles. We are informed by the huge representation of this white horse at Uffington and also the medallions of Silchester. According to both, the ancient population, who created these images, believed themselves to be the sons of the White Horse.

Women, even today, visit this image with the hope of increasing their fertility. The 374 ft. White Horse of Uffington dates to the 5-4th centuries B.C. It is also believed to be the totem-animal of the Iceni people who flourished in the 2-1 centuries B.C. Many other horse

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figures can be found on the British Isles, such as the representations of Cherhill, Pewsey and Alton Barns but these all date from the 18-20th centuries A.D. and show the tenacity by which ancient symbols survive.

King Alfred is also connected with such White Horse representations. His name is explained as “Elf-rede”, where the first syllable places him into the ancient times of the fairy folk which inhabited the Isles. He was a courageous, cultured person and his laws ended the bloodshed. The same region also honors a “Horse-goddess” by the name of Epona, whose cult was also adopted by the Romans, who called her Regina. Epona’s name is connected with the name of the Pannon-Magyar ethnic group’s name, their mother-goddess Panna, and also the words for sun and light (nap, fény).

Cerne is the devotional center of the God Helith, Helis or Heil. The rock drawing of the Giant of Cerne shows him holding a huge club (kalló in Hungarian) and he also shows other signs of his masculinity, which elevate him to a symbol of fertility. Here both the name of the town Cerne and the God Helith are connected with the Hungarian kör, kel, (circle, to rise) and also Kolos, Kallós names.

These names are preserved in several city- names in the Carpathian Basin, like Kolozsvár in Transylvania. The name of the Roman Hercules, who was always represented with a huge club was derived from this word group, but they did not understand the connection to these names. The name of the Scythian Kolaxis, whom the Greeks mentioned, and Gelonos, who was the son of Heracles, belong here too.

The meaning of the County of Kent is “staff”, which is connected with the Hungarian word Kan, meaning maleness.

The inhabitants of NW Spain, who were defeated by the Roman Emperor Augustus, are called the Cantabrians. Agricola, the governor of Britannia (78-85 A.D.), settled the Belgian Tengri people here as peacekeepers. These are shown on the early maps of Belgium as Civitas

Tugrorum. An ancient king or hero of Kent was Brethwald and this name later became a title of nobility. Aethelbert ruled Kent in 597 A.D.; the King of Northumbria was Aetelfrith. These names signal royal descent and belong into the Atilla-Etele line of history.

The first syllable of the names Cantium or Cantawara, in Kent, is identical to the Hungarian kanta, kancsó (pitcher), which gave rise to the Latin word cantharus and the Greek Kantharos, meaning a pitcher with long handles (kantáros in Hungarian); the same name and object were also used by the Etruscans. The internal space of the pitcher was considered a receiving, feminine symbol; the pouring of a liquid from the pitcher a masculine, inseminating symbol in many cultures of the world. Pagan holy places or churches were usually erected near a natural well to express the same symbolism, which received a meager expression in the holder of holy water in Catholic churches.

Adorján Magyar showed in his drawings that the ancient pagan churches followed the form of a female body, since their role and capacity to enclose is a female symbol. The Hungarian word anyaszentegyház (holy mother church) brings old pagan times to mind. While the word egyház was derived from the name Ég (God), the Egyház (church, lit.: the House of the One) designates a spiritual community.

In the British Isles, the Romans built their holy places in the occupied territories, upon already existing religious centers, and they did so in Kent, or Cantawara too. Here they built a devotional place for Apollo and this tells us that the ancient population dedicated this ancient place to the Sun. Later, in the Christian era, in 597, they built an abbey to honor St. Augustine, which later became the Archbishopric of Canterbury.

Returning to the name kancsó (pitcher), its folk-name is also “kincső”, which the people also call the Big Dipper. This name turns our eyes toward the sky. The word kincs also means light and richness. According to this, the ancient

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name of Cantawara indicated that this castle was a place of light, life and treasures. The ending syllable “-wara” of this name also indicates the presence of the ancient Avar, or Várkun Magyar ethnic group.

Historian, David McRoberts tells us about the rocky road of the Scots toward developing a central government. After the withdrawal of the Roman legions in the early fifth century, four kingdoms began to take shape in the territory of today’s Scotland: Cumbria, between Glasgow and Carlisle, Bernicia between the Firth of Forth and Tyne, the kingdom of the Picts and Argyllshire, which was also called Scotia, to which a few western islands also belonged. These latter ones were inhabited by Scots from Ireland, and those whom historians called by the name of Picts, meaning painted people. The rest of the territory was Pictavia, with loosely defined borders.

The Scots, who claim to have Scythian origins, called their Argyll kingdom “Dalriada” in their own language. Prince Argyilus is a treasured part of Hungarian folklore and became part of later literature too. Dalriada’s famous hero in the sixth century A.D. was Colum, noted not only for his literacy, but also his voice which carried for miles, and with which he was able to assemble his troops from great distances. The consonants of Colum’s name are identical with the consonants of the Hungarian kürt (horn). Considering that his field of action was connected with the church of Saint Finnian and the name Finnian suggests pre-Christian times, Colum must have been the descendant of an ancient personage, who gave Dalriada its name with the meaning of “Battle Song”, a call to battle (dal = song, riadó = alert).

The later king of Dalriada was the Scottish MacAlpine in 843 A.D. He occupied the lands of the Picts and brought the Stone of Destiny to Alba or Albany.

The settlement of Ireland was accomplished in five waves. One such wave was – according to the Historia Brittonum – the arrival of one thousand

people from Partholon, who were expelled from their country in the fourth century B.C., and finally arrived in the British Isles. Geoffrey of Monmouth places them in this historical era too, but, according to him, they arrived from Spain to Orkney and settled later, with royal permission, in Ireland. According to one theory, the present Irish are their descendants. They were farmers, busying themselves with animal husbandry, beer-brewing and building projects, and so they brought with them the tools of a peaceful life-style. Partholon’s descendants were Nemed and Fir-Bolg, who in time developed small kingdoms. The name Partholon and the story of the expulsion from their former home bring him into connection with the Hungarian words part, pártos (border, dissenter) and the Parthian Empire and deserves further research.

Nemed’s name reminds us of the name Nimrod, ancestor of the Hun-Magyar people. J.B. Hannay, who did not speak the Hungarian language, translated the name Nemed as “The begetting rod”, which is the exact translation of the name Nimrod too. Ipolyi brings up a quote from Műglein from the Chronicon Rythmicum 6: “Nemprot avus Hunorum / triginta cubitorum / me recolo legisse / in longum extitisse,” which speaks of the truly remarkable manly qualities of Nimrod, fit for a pater familias.

Nimrod here is the rod of procreative powers. The giant drawings of male figures on the British Isles echo this concept; they are still visited by women hoping for children. The survival of giants was the longest in Cornwall, from where “Gogmagog” originated. One of our great Hungarian poets, Endre Ady begins one of his poems: “I am the son of Góg and Magóg...”, bringing the land of the Magyars and Cornwall into close relationship.

Ipolyi also mentions the name Nemere, which is the name of a tall mountain, and also the north wind of the Székely (Sicul) land in Transylvania, which can even kill people. The composition of the name Nemere again contains the procreative powers. We also know that the winds are not

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only the agents of destruction, but also of life by pollinating flowers. One Székely folk song says the following: : “Nemerének hideg szele, / fú a kalászos rétre le / attól rózsám meg nem fázik, / sőt inkább megpirosodik.” (The cold wind of Nemere blows the fruitful meadows, my sweetheart will not catch cold from it, and what’s more her cheeks will get red...)

Scottish traditions preserved the most ancient Celtic names for us. The same legends preserved the Fin legends and words, and the later incoming Scots probably adopted many names, words, customs from the ancient inhabitants.

The Scottish people lived under patriarchal rule. Out of forty of the ‘ancient’ Scottish names I have collected, there are only seven that don’t begin with the initial Mac, and this hints toward their Magyar ancestry. The Scottish Mac, (or Irish Mc) prefixes are identical in form and meaning with the Hungarian Mag (seed), the name Magyar itself meaning Mag-man. The very important MacArthur family’s name in Hungarian means the seed of Arthur, it can also be stated as Arthurfi. The “fi” particle means a man-child in both Celtic and Hungarian.

It is also interesting to note that, of these forty ancient Scottish families, twelve lived in Argyll, which brings the story of the Hungarian Prince Argyélus to mind, once again.

It is also important to note that the most ancient Scot family burial place was Iona which is the name of the indigenous Jász population of Transdanubia, which is also connected with the concept of Jász and gyász (mourning). The Ionreach family’s home was in Kintail county: both preserved the Jász and Kun connection on the British Isles as they live side by side in the Jász-Kun region of Hungary. Presently the MacKenzie family states that it originates from here and so this name serves as a bridge again toward the Ion and Kun branch of the Magyar people.

The symbolic flower of these families was almost exclusively the fir tree or some other evergreen plant, a sprig of which they

traditionally wore on their hats. The evergreen fir was the symbolic plant of the White Hun ethnic group. The color of Scottish attire and their symbolic flowers belonged to a certain family and could not be used by anyone else and they could not use their crest either. These colors and flowers were part of a pre-crest antiquity, the Golden Age.

The MacArthur family was believed to be of royal descent. The English had the head of this family executed; their holdings were taken away. The fate of Scottish nobility from then on resembled that of the Hungarians during the rule of the Hapsburgs, who were Emperors of Austria and Kings of Hungary. The popular saying in those days was the following: “The Austrian Emperor forever wages war against the Hungarian King.”

Their family crest includes the isosceles sun cross, which is probably mankind’s most frequently found and most ancient symbol, plus three crowns. Their name carries the name of the legendary Arthur.

Many Hungarian legends include patterns of the Arthurian legends. Among these are legends of the sword, and a holy cup, known in later centuries in Western Europe as the grail. Among Arthur’s noble knights we find Bors whose name can be traced to County Borsod (i.e. the place or seat of Bors) in Hungary.

These legends again are connected with the Golden Age of mankind. The name Arthur brings to mind the hero of the Arthurian legends and almost all elements of the saga of God’s Sword (Isten Kardja).

Among the heroes of the Round Table was Bors, son of Arthur, whose name is part of the geography of the Carpathian Basin, such as in County Borsod. Archaeologist Ilona Sz. Czeglédi considers name to be of Slavic origin, in her article in the Journal of Archaeology, and does not take into consideration the many place-names that are based upon the word Bors, nor does she consider the linguistic connections of this word.

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Other examples include a Bors township in Bihar County, a Borsa town in Transylvania and Máramaros, some smaller settlements called Borsád in Veszprém County and, with the help of a good map, we could continue this list ad infinitum. I, myself, believe the origin of this word lies within the B-R word-group, where it means a round, hard seed. It is related to the boróka (juniper), which the Székely call borsika.

A most thorough research was done by Milós Szabó concerning the Celtic names of the Carpathian Basin in the first and second centuries A.D. He based his research upon the Greek language, because “it is characteristic that, even in the most ancient layer of the Roman personal names, there is hardly any common Indo-European system.”

He mentions Cuchulainn as an ancient Irish name, where the first syllable “Cu” means dog, which is kutya in Hungarian. The original Hungarian dog breeds carry the “ku or ko”

syllable, like kuvasz, komondor, which also hints at their wedge (ék) shaped heads.

The reciprocal of the Ku contains the symbolic word ék of the Huns. Szigeti says that the Setantii clan’s name is also ancient Irish, which means “westerner”. In Hungarian, sötét means darkness and there is a clear connection with the direction of the sunset, which is west.

At the excavation site of Potzneusiedl-Gattendorf, an inscription of the word “mutsa” was found, which was translated by a researcher, Holder, who did not speak Hungarian, as “mocsok”, meaning dirt.

Szigeti mentions, as a Celtic name, the Welsh family name of Euryn, “arany” in Hungarian, which means gold. He also found several connections with the word “matu”, like Matumarus, Matugenta, Maturus, Matto, Matta. All these names are connected to the Hungarian words mét, megye, mező (land, county, meadow).

Milós Szabó brought these into connection

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with the M-T word-group’s medve, which was a solar symbol. He does not use the Celtic names which were supposedly mixed with the Venet language, but I have to mention the words containing the Il(l)o suffixes like Ab-ilus, Bas-ila, Diar-ilos, Suad-illus, Mag-ilo, Cucc-illo since they are in connection with the Hungarian words élet, lélek and illó (life, soul and volatile).

During the Celts’ sojourn in the Carpathian Basin, they became closely connected to the language and culture of the Hungarians. When the opportunity for a new meeting presented itself, during the time of the occupation of the Irish islands, they were even more easily able to retain these memories, which can still be recognized in their different cultural elements.

A Hungarian historian, Dr. Tibor Baráth, originates the word Celtic from the Magyar word keleti, meaning eastern.

The Celtic migration from the Carpathian Basin is connected with the Hallstatt and La Tène cultures. The famous settlement of the late Hallstatt era is Heuneburg, on the Danube. Its inhabitants possessed all the achievements of a cultured and settled life and also maintained trade routes with the Mediterranean cultures. Western scholars attribute their high life-style and architecture to the influence of the latter.

The grave of a Celtic princess, which was excavated at Mt. Lassois near the Seine is by no means inferior to the pomp of the famous and well known Etruscan and Egyptian burial places. The design of the gold jewelry “contains classical elements, like the very complex palmetto design which was mixed with the indigenous Hallstatt and nomadic elements.” – Ipolyi Magyar mythologia Vol.I:203.

The writer of the book does not tell us that in that age, in the fifth century A.D. the indigenous Hallstatt and the classical culture were both in close connection with the decorative elements of our ancient peoples. Neither do they mention that the ancient culture of the Carpathian Basin arrived in Western Europe several thousand years later.

Considering that, from the time of the ancient meditative movement, which took hermits to the sulfur caves of Ireland and they became known as “the heroes who visit Hell”, the connection between Ireland and Hungary was established and, we believe, based on such evidence, that these connections began in the pre-Christian era.

The first written sources date from the 14th. century and the Abbey of Melk. The Royal Library of Vienna holds the writings of a Hungarian priest from Losonc concerning this age. The first student of Oxford was also a Hungarian. His name at the time of registration was Nicola de Hungaria, and his education was supported between 1193 and 1196 by Richard the Lionhearted, the brother in law of Queen Margaret. It is no accident that the origin of the Magna Carta and the Magyar Golden Bull are so close in time.

Taliesin was among the four great poets of Rheged. His name is translated as “Radiant Brow.” He preserved the memory of an ancient home among the summer stars. The first syllable of his name (Tal) is connected with the Hungarian words for shine, splendor (dél, deli), song (dal) and also the name of the Magyar “Táltos” priestly class, whose members taught people through song.

Arthur’s name belongs in the same word-group (T-R, T-L). The last syllable of Taliesin’s name (sin) is identical with the Hungarian word szem, szen meaning eye, seeds (which are eye-shaped, like the grains of wheat).

The Hungarian meaning of Taliesin’s name is Shiny Eye. His home “among the morning stars” may also be connected with Arctoúros and the rotation of the sky. This celestial drama is the original source of the Arthurian legends. As a matter of fact, the Shiny Eye may carry the meaning of star too. The Hungarian tale of the Star-Eyed Shepherd preserved this image for us. The image of “star eyed” individuals was quite common and was part of folk – and representational arts.

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The ancient memories were preserved by the poets of Rheged on the British Isles” and the “regõs” in Hungary. Their voices were drowned out in blood. The great Hungarian poet, János Arany, in his poem, “The Bards of Wales” mourned both.

Albactanus, King of Scotland, was killed by the Huns, in a battle, 25 years after the arrival of the Trojans, according to one tradition, around 1070 B.C. Later they were expelled from the southern parts of the Isles where – during flight—the leader of the Huns by the name of Humber drowned in a river. Since then, this river has been called Humber. The Huns were present in the British Isles before Christ, so much so that they even wrote their names into the geography. In the patrilineal Hun society, the rivers were symbols of masculinity to which the words ondó and ont, önt (semen, to pour) testify.

Professor Ashe believes that the Hun name stems from an error of later ages, since this Humber of 1070 B.C. precedes the Huns of Atilla by centuries. Therefore, he is unable to make use of the ancient Hun vocabulary to which the Hungarian word hon and the English home belong, along with the Hungarian him (male) and the words homo and human which are believed to be of Indo-European origin but can be traced back to the ancient Hun vocabulary. The Hungarian hamu (ashes) belongs here too.

In ancient times this was the symbol of a settled life – people around a fire. The poetic expression of this can be found in the story of Hammas Jutka, the Cinderella of the British culture and the story of the boy who turned into a deer, whose figure was immortalized by Béla Barók’s Cantata Profana. The very important symbolism of this ballad was explained by Gábor Pap in his quoted book.

The river name, Habren, also has Hungarian linguistic connections, where hab means water. This river is sometimes also called Sabrina in Latin environment and Severn in English. The first syllable of both is the Hungarian viz

(water). According to Professor Ashe, neither name can be explained from Indo-European languages. They lead back to untold antiquity and he believes that these names represent the ancient guardian spirits of the waters.

Considering that most water names of the British Isles originate in a pre-British age and many of them are identical to Hungarian river names still alive in Hungary, which can be explained easily with the Hungarian language, we have to recognize the presence of Magyars in these ancient times, in the British Isles and its population. This Western European line of Hungarian history was neglected by Hungarian historians and also by the West, to favor the non-existing Asiatic origin of the Magyars. With this, western scholarship was prevented from fully understanding the elements of the ancient Magyar past.

Belinus, the son of Molmutin, the primary king of the dual-monarchy, and his brother Brennius, the King of the North bear names which are echoed in the vocabulary of the Palóc-Magyar ethnic group and in the name Béla, the name of the ancient Sun-god.

Athelney is the name of the marshland near Glastonbury. The word Athel here is connected with water, following the lead of the Atil-Etel word-cluster, which means water, river, and it is also connected with King Atilla’s name. “Ætheling”, (presently “atheling”), a title of British nobility, is also interesting, since it signals a direct royal descent. The early and ancient English masculine form is ætheling, the feminine version is æthelu. The long-time settlement of Árpád’s Magyars was Etelköz, which, in view of the above, gains the added meaning of “royal island”; the “köz” particle until now signaled the womb and birthplace and also a land protected by rivers. Similar territory can be found between the rivers Duna and Tisza and the Csallóköz. Since the British legends talk about the Huns well before the time of Atilla, this title takes us back into antiquity and has preserved the title of an ancient Hun office.

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According to this Atilla’s name Etele may have meant a Royal Prince, deservedly so, as he was the son of Bendeguz. In the works of historian, Anonymus, Atilla’s name appears as Athile (Anon. 1 and 5). The later spelling of “Atilla” with two “t”-s conforms only to Germanic linguistic customs. His name, Athile, may also have meant that he was part of the Royal Scythians. Early historians called the Scythians Royal, just as they did the Welsh. The word “ætheling” changes in German to “Edel” which means noble. I must mention that the symbolic colors of the White Huns were white and light blue. The flowers of their former territories, now in Austria, the silver-white Edelweiss and the blue, tulip like Alpine flower the Gentian were their symbolic flowers.

Later, the dream of Emese of a future dynasty, symbolized by a huge river, also belongs into the Atil-Etil-Itil saga and word-group. Historian, Ipolyi, summarizes the traditions concerning Etele stating that the name Atel, Etel is identical to the name of the ancient Etelköz, just as another ancient pater familias, Tana, is identical to the Don-Tanais River. It reminds us of the elemental origin of the heroes and demigods of old, which again surfaces in the life of Álmos, just as it was present in the old Scythian sagas that tell that Targitaus, the ancestor of the Scythians, was the son of Zeus and the nymph of the river Boristhenes (Herodot 4, 5).

Thus Ipolyi traces the name Etele directly back to Scythian ancestral traditions, from where – as I have demonstrated in my paper concerning the Arthurian legends – the image of the Holy Grail, as a symbol of life, began. Antal Csengeri mentions that the Finnish word eteletär means the daughter of the South-wind. Here the first tär syllable means a girl, the Etele here is the name of the South-wind and can be connected with the Transylvanian Nemere: both contain the name of the Hun pater familias and mean a force of nature. We have to recognize in these names the name of God, whom these peoples revered, who is manifested through the

world of nature, may it be a wind storm or a flood. The descendants of these peoples adopted His name for their own children of this world.

Considering that today’s historians date the origins of British history to the arrival in the West of the Trojan refugees or of the ten lost Israeli tribes, their history begins with William the Conqueror in 1066. The Scythian origin sagas, on the other hand, take us back to the dawn of history and I consider these sagas, and the names of rivers and names of honor a part of the earlier Magyar traditions. We have to remind ourselves that, while Hungary had a well-established central government and county system by 1,000 A.D., the same came about eight-hundred years later in Germany and Italy, after the unification of the small kingdoms.

Incidentally, in the time of Tiberius, during the tax revolt, the Romans encountered fierce resistance in Sirmium around Mons Almus, now known as Fruskagora. Since Álmos was also mentioned as Almus in the Hungarian Gesta Hungarorum, this Magyar name existed at least one thousand years before the arrival of Árpád and the Magyars in the Carpathian Basin. Returning to Tana’s name “...Tana, the ancient father of our (i.e. Hungarian) chronicles may well be the first Scythian ruler with the name Tana... In the Hungarian language tanya means a settled mode of living, a permanent base and, as we have seen, it may mean a ‘seat’, settlement meaning the ‘descensus’ of the earlier generation.” Here he also mentions the historical names of Duna, Don, Dentumoger which are part of the geography of the British Isles. The Hungarian names Dana, Damasek are ancient names for God and tie the Mesopotamian Dumuzi’s name to our ancient memories.

Athelstan, the son of Elf-rede lived in Northumbria and ruled there between 925-940 A.D. Many legends surround his figure. His name is connected with the Etel, Atil word-group. One of the legends talks about his wanderings when he met a poor man and accidentally burned his cakes in a fire. This story is a half-forgotten

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Hungarian legend, where heroes embarking on a mission always take little cakes baked in ashes with them. It is also connected with the word-group of hun, hon, hamu we discussed earlier.

Iona is the name of the island, the burial place of most of the Scythian descendants, who were the Picts, Scots and also the English inhabitants of Northumbria. The name Iona is the same as the name Ion of the Transdanubian indigenous Jász population’s, a name that is also connected with mourning (gyász).

The white horse is an integral part of the Royal Welsh mythology, along with a deer hunt, in which Annwfyn’s gleaming white dogs with red ears try to capture a stag. Both the stag and the dog are symbolic animals of the Magyar peoples. The conical head of a dog is present in an architectural motif of the roof-structure of an early Stone Age house at Röszke Lúdvár” in Hungary.

The stag — the Miracle Stag, Stag of Light — is central to Hungarian mythology as the symbol of the sky and as God’s messenger. In the Annwfyn legend the Lord of the Otherworld is Arawn, a name which echoes the Hungarian word arany meaning gold in present usage, although its original meaning was shine.

The Cornish descent from the giant Gogmagog who came forth from the Princess Albina’s union with demons and her subsequent giving birth to giants is also part of the stories of the Scythian-Magyar origin. Ipolyi believes the Hungarian legend of origins from Góg and Magóg is an authentic pre-Christian Magyar tradition. He refers to Anonymus, who related an ancient tradition, which – although having become somewhat clouded in the course of centuries – nevertheless had preserved knowledge of the Scythians and the neighboring peoples.

The Tristan and Isolde stories originated in the Pictish legend of Drust. Isolde’s name was variably Essylt, Iseult, Isolt, Yseut according to tradition.

Tristan’s name belongs to the same T-R word-group as Arthur’s. The Es-Is-Ys- syllable

shows Jász (Iasy) influence and a connection with waters. In this respect, the Tristan story is an almost forgotten fragment of an ancient solar myth concerning fertility and creation.

There is mention of a Tristan stone in Cornwall near Castle Dore. A Latin inscription states the following: “Drustanus lies here, the son of Cunomorus.” The latter name is spelled Kynovawr. The syllable “cuno” brings the Hun, Kun group to mind and the Várkun name of the Avars, meaning “the Kuns of the castle.”

Mr. Gwion Davies, the son of the founder of the Welsh National Library researched the Scythian origins of the Welsh people. He spoke in his letters about linguistic similarities between the Welsh and Hungarian languages and also the possible relationship of the carving of numbers of the Magyar rovás and the Welsh system of carved numbers. Regrettably, our correspondence had to stop, due to his age and illness. I sent him my rendering of the poem by János Arany, the great Hungarian poet, entitled “The Bards of Wales”. He wrote the following in his answer: “I was surprised to learn of the lament by János Arany over the loss of the Welsh Bards, and of the kinship felt between the Hungarians and the Welsh...”

The life of the Scottish Queen Margaret seems to be the summation of the Celtic-Scottish-Hungarian relationships. She was born of the Saxon Aetheling family, as the daughter of Edward, who was expected to become king. He and his family were exiled and they lived in the town of Nádasd in Hungary, as the royal guests of King István I.

Margaret was born in Hungary, around 1045 A.D. and was educated there until the age of twelve. During these formative years, she acquired literacy, the love of arts and especially embroidery.

They returned to England, in the company of Hungarian nobles, upon the invitation of King Edward the Confessor. Unfortunately, Margaret’s father died in England unexpectedly, so the family decided to return home to Hungary.

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A storm forced their ships to land on the shores of Scotland – and the rest is history.

Margaret married the Scottish King Malcolm III, introduced literacy to the court and became a supporter of arts and sciences. Moreover, she cared for the less fortunate and served their meals herself along with her husband, the King.

As the treasury became more and more depleted due to her charity work, the Scottish nobility competed with each other to see who could donate more to charity.

Reading this, I was reminded of the Hungarian St. Elizabeth, who married the Duke of Thuringia, practicing love and charity to the dismay of the Thuringians, who accused her of depleting their treasury. The care for the less fortunate is a long standing Hungarian tradition, which was practiced by these holy women outside of their homeland too.

The chronicler of Margaret’s life was a priest by the name of Turgot from Durham, who eventually became the Bishop of St. Andrews. According to him, Margaret was related to the House of Árpád and the Teutonic royal house, and Gizella, wife of St. King István I. of Hungary was her aunt.

She had eight children whom she raised strictly. This upbringing gave seven very strong kings to Scotland. The Church made her a saint on September16, 1249.

The following is not directly connected with Scotland, but with the English-Hungarian connections. The mother of their beloved Queen Anne was a Hungarian from Transylvania, the countess Rhédey.

As we can see the Hungarian connection with the British Isles was a continuum from the dawn of history to ancient monastic times, through St. Margaret, Queen of Scots, the first student of Oxford, Nicola de Hungaria to Queen Anne, to mention only the most outstanding events and personalities.

As a conclusion I have to mention that the history of both the Scots and the Hungarians were written and propagated by their oppressors

and enemies. The chronicler of St. Margaret’s life, for example, talks about the Hungarians of King St. István’s time as uncouth, wild, oriental people and does not realize the contradiction: St. Margaret learned literacy and the arts from these ‘barbarians.’ The same is true in the case of the Scottish historical picture. Present historians, like David MacRoberts, almost apologize for these images, sensing that this must be an inaccurate representation of these people.

It is the same spirit which tries to preserve the heritage of the ancestors in both Scotland and Hungary. I wonder if these ancestral traditions have gained a place in public education in Scotland.

The other Celtic-Scythian nation, the Welsh, gained permission within recent memory to finally erect a national library. There are no universities for Hungarian Studies in Hungary even though the Hungarian Academy of Sciences was founded with such a purpose by count István Széchenyi.

The Trianon dictate of 1920 severed the body of Hungary and she lost two thirds of her territory and population. The most Hungarian region, Transylvania, fights for its existence amidst cultural and ethnic genocide as we speak.

The only independent university in Hungary, founded by Dr. Agnes Gyárfás, the Nagy Lajos Király University was deprived of its school buildings, even though this is the last citadel of Hungarian Studies and Hungarian scholarship. It is presently existing through donations from Hungarians around the world.

To preserve the past, it would be very important to establish a sister-institute with a similar University in Scotland, since this could resurrect the ancient Scythian ties. I have written this short study, hoping to awaken interest in this subject.

My 640 word dictionary of related English-Celtic-Hungarian words is available upon request to students of Hungarian and Celtic studies at zsutomory@gmail.com.

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The Scottish Wildcat, affectionately (or fearfully!) known as the Highland Tiger, has lived in the Highlands for thousands of years and is deeply imbedded in Scottish heritage and folklore. It is currently facing imminent extinction, so, more than ever before, it is imperative to bring awareness to the plight of this magnificent creature, and work together to ensure its survival.

Because if its temperament and brute strength, the Highland Tiger has a long standing reputation as a beast not to be trifled with. Although much smaller than a lynx, the Scottish wildcat is larger than domestic cat breeds, and males weigh in at up to 7.26 kilograms (16lbs). If his size is not too intimidating, his attitude surely is! The Scottish wildcat is described as highly aggressive and has been known to successfully take down prey its own size. Wild hares, larger than rabbits and close in size to the wildcat himself are on the Highland Tiger’s dinner menu. This cat is built like a virtual hunting machine. He has incredibly strong jaws, claws like steel, excellent vision, and ears that can rotate 180 degrees.

The Wildcat

in Scottish Heritage and FolkloreThe Highland Tiger has roots that run deep

in Scottish consciousness. The area now called Caithness means “Land of the Cats” or “Land of the Cat People.” An old legend says that the Picts landing in Northern Scotland were attacked by wildcats. So fierce were these animals that the Picts in the region had great reverence and respect for them, and adopted the wildcat as their tribal symbol and name.

When the Celts came to Scotland’s shores, the Highland Tiger held his ground. The Celts, too, fell in line and learned to respect this beast. The leader of Clan Sutherland, the Duke of Sutherland, is known as The Great Man of the Cats (Morair Chat in Gaelic). Clan Chattan literally means “Clan of the Cat.” The motto on Clan Chattan’s crest is “Touch not the cat bot a glove” (bot meaning without), again attesting to the Scottish wildcat’s ferocity.

The Cat SìthThe Highland Tiger was so feared by the

people of the Highlands, that his tales likely influenced a fearsome creature of Celtic legend.

The Cat Sìth, or Cait Sidhe in Irish, was a frightening ghostly cat who haunted the hills of Scotland. In some tales the cat is a fairy, in others a shape-shifting witch.

The Cat Sìth had the power either to bless or to curse. On Samhain night, those who left a gift of milk in a saucer might receive a blessing, while those who did not could be cursed.

Because the Cat Sìth had the ability to steal souls, vigils kept watch over corpses at Celtic wakes to keep the souls of departed loved ones safe from the creature.

by Carolyn Emerick

Scotland’S critically EndangErEd Wildcat

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While the terror instilled by Cat Sìth matched the wildcat’s reputation, its physical description did not. Legend describes the Cat Sìth as a large black cat with a distinctive white mark on the front. This description matches more closely the legendary Kellas Cat. This cat was told of in old Scotch folklore, and is thought to be a wild hybrid of the Scottish wildcat and feral domestic cats.

Why The Wildcat Is Threatened And How We Can Help

Ironically, the Kellas Cat itself is one factor contributing to the Highland Tiger’s extinction. Due to dwindling numbers of purebreds, the wildcat is breeding with feral domestic cats, as well as with non-neutered or spayed pet cats. The two breeds are closely related and close in size, so they can breed together easily. Experts working on conservation of this species urge all cat owners near wildcat habitat to have their house cats fixed to avoid interbreeding.

Other major threats are typical of most endangered species. Human encroachment is limiting their habitat and pushing the wildcats into contact with people. Sadly, the wildcat has been spotted as roadkill on more than one occasion.

Appearing a bit larger than domesticated cats, these Highland Wildcats are reminiscent of the “wildcats” of southern Egypt, far up the Nile River, where size and a wilder color scheme set them apart from the average domesticated cat. Both sets of wildcats may very well be the “missing link,” as it were, between the larger cats, like cougars, tigers, leapoards, etc., and the cats that were domesticated by early humans. Just as in Egypt, these Highland Wildcats are to be dealt with cautiously. (Images from Wikipedia Commons)

Drawing from a photo by Kevin Law

This year, 2013, has been described as a make or break year for the Scottish wildcat. For this reason, we have included this as an important feature of our “Celtic Game Changers” issue. This could be the year we stop the downward spiral and change the fate of the Highland Tiger. There is some good news. Captive breeding programs are being conducted around the U.K. The hope is that wildcats bred in captivity can be released in the wild to bolster the numbers and revive the population.

There are groups actively working to save this much loved cat. The Scottish Wildcat Association provides links where the public can get involved to volunteer or donate to conservation efforts (scottishwildcats.co.uk). Another organization, Highland Tiger, promotes education and awareness about the wildcat’s plight. On their website (www.highlandtiger.com) you can find more ways to help, including their Adopt A Wildcat program.

Our Facebook followers may have already noticed a new page that just started with a goal to bring awareness about the wildcat’s situation. This new page will keep you up to date news of the Highland Tiger:

www.facebook.com/TheHighlandTiger. Let us rally together to be collective “game

changers” and change the fate of this beloved

wild animal. Get involved, spread the word, and together we can save the Highland Tiger!

Bibliography and websites to learn more:www.highlandtiger.comscottishwildcats.co.uk/http://www.snh.org.uk/pdfs/publications/

naturallyscottish/wildcats.pdfhttp://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-

highlands-islands-19569538h t t p : / / w w w . g u a r d i a n . c o . u k /

environment/2012/sep/16/scottish-wildcat-extinction

http://www.treesforlife.org.uk/forest/mythfolk/wildcat.html

www.clanchattan.org.ukh t t p : / / w w w. c a i t h n e s s . o r g / l i n k s /

thingstodoincaithness.htmhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cat_sìth

About the Author:Carolyn Emerick is from Rochester, NY, with

a family heritage from England, Scotland, and Wales, and has a strong interest in British and Celtic history. Carolyn holds a Bachelor’s degree in Literature and is currently pursuing a Master’s of Information and Library Science at the University at Buffalo. Carolyn also serves as the volunteer Social Media Coordinator for the Celtic Guide.

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by Larry Andrews, with assistance from Lawrence Burchett

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Our cover photo for March, the poem on the preceding page, and the article beginning on this page were all submitted by Larry Andrews, who is accumulating a vast collection of his own original artwork and writings with the intention of publishing a book sometime in the future. We are lucky that he has shared his talents with us in this issue of the Celtic Guide.

John Munro, the Tutor of Fowlis, was traveling home from a far rode visit to the eternal city of Edinburgh. It was a tiresome trek back toward Ross and all the while he longed for his lands. John restlessly roved over blue-green glens and high rolling hills ever questing for home.

The Munro warrior rode atop a beautiful black steed with two long-gray maned Highland horses in tow. John journeyed across fast running river fords and through thick pine forests, all the while ever wanting for the beautiful heather-riddled lands of Ross. The sun, fast falling, convinced the Munro to make a traveler’s bed for the evening. During the trek home, he happened upon a nice place to nest up for the night. It was a dry, straw-filled field, secluded and serene near the neighborhood of Strathardale.

The Tutor of Fowlis decided that long, lonely stretch of straw would be the best place for a bed beneath the moon. Out in the open air with the aid of a bright round raiders’ lamp, John settled his swift steed and tow for some well-earned rest. On a bed of straw, the mighty Munro, tired from travel, made a pillow of his plaid then fell fast to sleep. During the deepest, darkest part

of that cloud-filled night, a few locals, with mischief on their minds and sickles in hand, came upon sleeping John’s camp. Those short-sighted delvers of devilment found some fun with the Highlander’s horses. They snipped short the steed’s tail and the pack animals’ tails, too. Then the devils slipped away back into the misty recesses of Strathardale.

Upon rising, John instantly spotted the short-snipped mounts. His fists clenched tight and a dreadful fury became the first order for that dire day. The Munro, maddened by what was to him an insidious insult, drew his long, lean dirk and shook it at an indifferent sky. His freckled forehead furrowed and the Munro warrior’s mind burned bright, fueled with thoughts of the sword, the flame, and the fray.

Through crooked, clenched teeth, the prideful Highlander snarled in a low wild whisper, making a dark promise to the dawning day. He kissed his razor-sharp dirk to seal a silent oath. Riddled with rage, John could utter only one word, “REVENGE.” The maddened Munro rode home overly aware of this affront, and as such, in him a wild, boar-like temper continued to boil and brew. The whole ride back he became more and more hardhearted and hungry for retaliation. In John’s malicious mind, he made plans for plundering the soon-to-be-doleful folk of Strathardale.

It was a long, lonely ride for that wild mountain warrior. When his friends first saw him returning, they found the Tutor steaming and teeming with thoughts steadfast toward slaughter. John, relentless in his rage, rallied allies, friends, and clan to bring to the land of his

insult a sad fear-filled song of slash and flame. The fiery cross was at once sent out to muster the Munro. The cross was burnt on one side; on the other was a cut of white coat, dipped deep in lamb’s blood.

Fleet of foot, the Highland warriors carried that symbol of strife round the mountainous lands of John’s clan. From one proud blade-ready soul sower to the next it was passed. In remarkable time, the strongest warriors, ready for the sword storm, gathered at the clan’s rally rock. There among his war ready kin, the Tutor of Fowlis told of how the Strathardale folk must have thought his clansmen weak, long-whining curs for, otherwise, surely they would not have been so crude and malicious in his mistreatment.

John’s affronted clansmen howled like wild wolves, sharing their leader’s slight. Hundreds of clansmen came to his call, and of them, John handpicked the most hardhearted, strongest, and stoutest of warriors. Each picked man among the Munro was red ready to go to Strathardale and furnish red feasts for the ravens.

As one, three hundred and fifty warriors raised their sturdy steel, all backing John’s own bedeviled blade. Many of them were mail-clad warriors; all of them reapers of the red fray, keening for a crimson night. The warriors were well worked into a wild frenzy by the words and iron will of John the Tutor of Fowlis.

The mighty Munro host, free of all mercy, marched for that woeful land with pride, plunder burning bright in their Highland hearts. When the clansmen arrived, mail-clad and merciless, they laid waste to the lands of Strathardale. Flame and sword was the wanton way of these warriors. That night became a time of slashing, raping, and rampant revenge. The Munro killed without care and Strathardale, that woeful place, fell to red-wrecked ruin.

The hardhearted raiders burnt homes, farms, and fields, and slaughtered the surprised folk wholesale. In every direction, flames lit the faces of their horror stricken foes. John and

his warriors, with high laughter, made crimson meals of all the luckless men who tried to stand against them. The Tutor was far famed for his war craft. He moved fleet of foot and slew Strathardale warriors all around him. The insulted Munro from Fowlis waded deep into his foes with a fury of relentless red steel. He killed, wild and without fault in his blade work. Death strokes kept ever in his path slain enemies. Close by his combat stride, bold fighters fell in heaps.

When John was not carving carnage among his enemies he hardheartedly burned barns, fields and foes in their homes. Strathardale cooked bright that night; a land filled with flames and fields soaked red with ravens’ meat. Long would the people of that despoiled country sing sad songs and mourn the night of slaughter. They found no protection behind targes or iron-webbed coats of war. In droves the sorrowful folk fell, bloodstained and dreadful in their deaths. Mothers, lovers, and wives wildly wept and keened over the sad slaying of their kin. No son would ever envy the Strathardale defenders. Utter destruction and red defeat was the hard dish handed to them that sorrowful night. The land had been so well ravaged that even hounds could no longer find a home.

Leaving despoiled Starthardale behind them, the Munro marauders drove a magnificent herd of cattle along with a heavy hoard of plunder toward home. For the Highlanders to get that huge hoard back, they had to march by the Isle of Moy, which was Chattan country. Reports of a Munro war party, passing through with good spoil, soon spared little time in getting to Macintosh, the chief of that confederation.

During the age of feud and foray, a stike raid or stick criech-staoig crech, commonly called a road callop was a traveling raider tradition. If, by the nature of the best route back, raiders fresh from the fray had to pass through another clan’s lands, those far-ranging reapers, out of pride, custom, and courtesy, would share their war plunder as a price for passing. This tradition

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was, in fact, at the heart of all that would happen next.

The Munro despoilers were passing through Clan Chattan lands with a great deal of plunder and the Macintosh chief wanted his road callop. Not to be left out of that share, MacIntosh gathered his personal best mail-clad men to the sum of forty warriors, as was also the common custom of the time. He and his war party moved to meet the Munro raiders near a river crossing. There, the two clan leaders paused to negotiate the Chattan take of the plunder.

John the Tutor of Fowlis offered the Macintosh his full and fair reward. The bold Munro’s road callop added up to the sum of twenty-four heifers and one bull. Ill advised, the Chattan chief, compulsive in his desires, decided to get more than his honorable due. The Macintosh demanded half of the proud Munro’s plunder. John resolutely refused to offer any more and so marched that plunder past the great Macintosh.

Feeling slighted in front of his followers, the chief of the Chattan burned bright with wanton rage. Far famed for his wild temper, he sent out the fiery cross to gather his own red reapers. All of Macintosh followers felt that an affront to their chief was, in fact, an attack on their own honor and so shared the insult. The Chattan Confederation rallied to their clan chief’s call. They came, fleet of foot, with bows, barbed arrows, great axes, and claymores.

The Tutor of Fowlis sent fifty of his followers to drive their plunder to Ferrin-Donnell in the lands of Lovat. John then roared to his remaining warriors, “Let us stand and fight and so serve the Chattan clans some Munro might!” Three hundred blades thrust at once into the air. Far flung were echoing war-cries of the Munro, “Caisteal folais’na theine!”, “Castle Fowlis in flames!”

The wild warriors thundered that battle call again and again as they formed in ready ranks by the South bank of the Beauly Firth. There, the resolute mail-clad Munros, already red

from the fray, stood steadfast for the coming clash of clans. The Chattan boldly marched in battle stride to meet their Munro foes at the steel strife. The Macintosh chief, brave and bold as all leaders must be, bellowed to his followers, “CLAN CHATTAN! CLAN CHATTAN! CLAN CHATTAN! As one, the heroes of the Chattan Confederation returned that call.

Each clan faced the other and shouted out insults; they howled and snarled at one another like furious wolves of the fray. Pipes began to echo across the Beauly Firth and with that long-loved drone, their glory frenzy grew. The pipers played the wonderful war songs of their courageous clansmen and to those tunes, the wild Highlanders frothed, hot for the fray.

All at once, flights of barb-bladed arrows passed in the sky; they held but a moment up high then fell hard down as bearers of wicked wounds and fatal fates. Volley after volley flew and slew until the death dealing darts had been all well spent. Then, as one, those wild, willing clansmen charged forward for the killing. The proud Munro had the best pick of the ground, and from an incline, poured down to fame and fate. The glorious Chattan, fast and fearless in their pace, rushed to greet them. With a resounding impact, the hardhearted Highland clans clashed. Ferocious at the forefront, they fought with hot red carnage. Limbs flew and bold men fell slaughtered by axe and sword blows.

Quick, wicked blades were brought down hard on helmed heads. Warriors, savage with their claymore craft, sent mail-clad men clasping crimson stumps where their legs once had been. The conflict was a cruel and resolute reaping of souls. Fearless, fighting clansmen roared, cursed, and cried aloud, giving their heads and limbs as warfare’s grim gifts.

The Macintosh chief, ever first to the red front, wielded his weapon free of all mercy; he heaped corpses at every stroke. His killing claymore need never go to the same place twice. The Chattan warrior brought to the mail-clad Munros a relentless sword song. He roared

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as a hardhearted lion among Highland warriors. There was swirling steel killing all about him, yet with red-splashed cheeks, that Macintosh stood steadfast, a confident anchor to the morale his clansmen.

To stop his murder spree, many Munro warriors brought their bold blades to him. Under that strife, the Chattan chief’s brave, blood-washed brother and second son fell dead defending his flanks. Then a determined sword stroke caught and killed the crimson, mail-clad Macintosh. Hot in his temper, quick to pass the wine horn, fearless in the red fray, the mighty Macintosh’s soul slipped away.

John of Folwis fought wildly, whirling his weapon without fear. All saw a courageous stroke from his crimson claymore that cleaved in twain a woeful Chattan warrior. None there could claim that, in the hot seat of slaughter, he did not give gifts of gore. Reckless of life and limb, he destroyed ranks all around him. A flash of steel on his right side and a well-aimed sword blow ruined that warrior’s arm. John the Tutor of Fowlis fell. He was left for ravens’ meat on that field of woe, covered in carnage, one more fallen Munro.

Long was that battle fought, until weariness came down to the fray. The Munro held fast in that fight and, with blue blades, splintered their foe’s formation. Bards still sing of two hundred Chattans cut down and many mail-clad Munros who laid in red ruin. The battle of Clachnaharry

was hard fought on both sides, but in the end, the Munro Clan carried the day. The Chattan, after suffering so many losses, gave up the fight and fled for their lives.

John was left for dead on the field of fallen warriors. Mighty men lay all around him, red ready for the raven’s beak. For many a day, mourning lasses moved through the corpses, seeking lost or slain fathers, brothers, and lovers. Among those woeful women was an old, wandering widow who by chance found the Tutor of Fowlis sorely leaking red with his arm wrecked and in ruin.

She, with the aid of others, took John the Tutor to the Lord of Lovat. There, the great Fraser had John’s woeful wound healed with herbs, time, and tender care. The Tutor of Fowlis long lay under the aid of the Lord of Lovat, and from that lengthy cure, came a foundation of friendship and alliance between the Frasers and the Munros of Fowlis.

In time, John healed from his wounds though not entirely whole. Because of the ruined arm received in that crimson fray, the Tutor of Fowlis was forever after called John Baclamhach. He lived a long and prosperous life after that ferocious fight. John survived many years, with a mutilated arm to ever remind him of pride and plunder. His decedents were later to become the Munros of Milntown.

An Deireadh

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So, what’s next?I am so proud of the diversity and studious research that has gone into the articles in this

issue of the Celtic Guide – as I have always been, in the past. I am lucky (as is the reader) that so many knowledgeable people continue to provide stories found in very few other places.

In April we will explore Celtic Freedom. Certainly freedom has been one of the driving forces behind the Celtic diaspora, since way back when Julius Caesar chased this race out of the Alps after putting over a million of them to the sword. The Scottish Declaration of Arbroath is well-known to have been a pattern for the American Declaration of Independence, and it was the ‘Scottish-Irish’ who led the charge at many of the battles of the American Revolution.

Not much more proof is needed, though there are plenty of new stories to tell. For the May issue we are going to take a look at vacation spots in Celtic countries and those

with large Celtic populations. We have already received some glorious, original photographs of Scotland and Wales that melt the heart. Our Facebook readers are sending in some stories and photos, too. So, all-in-all, it should be another very interesting issue.

A naysayer, in only my second month, said – “That’s fine, until you run out of things to write about.” Och! After fifteen issues of the Guide published so far . . . boy was she wrong! My email inbox is loaded with hundreds of emails containing stories, ideas, photographs, and offers of volunteer help . . . and from all over the world!

Can’t never did nothin’!

Celts in the Yukon?People of Celtic blood played some of the more

substantial roles in exploring the Yukon River Valley. Many place names, from the Stewart, Mackenzie and Fraser Rivers, to the towns of Mayo, McQuesten and McGrath, to the Ogilvie Mountains, the Muir Glaciers, Forts McPherson and Fort Selkirk, all testify to the significance of Celtic explorers in the early days of this region.

In his book Father of the Yukon, Celtic Guide publisher, Jim McQuiston, presents some great history of the only person ever to be named Father of Alaska or Father of the Yukon, along with substantial information on the 25 years BEFORE the Klondike gold rush. His book on Captain Jack is available on amazon.com and other book sites, with more info at http://www.fatheroftheyukon.com.